Benched receiver back into fray

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/11/2011 (5143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — He waited, patiently and quietly, for 10 long weeks — hoping he’d get another chance, but never knowing for sure if he would.

And then in this final week of the regular season — in advance of the biggest game of the season — Terence Jeffers-Harris finally got the tap on the shoulder he’d been waiting for.

For the first time since Week 7 of the CFL schedule, Jeffers-Harris will dress for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — taking the field this afternoon at McMahon Stadium against the Calgary Stampeders in a game that has first-place implications for both teams.

And with that, what had been a lost season to this point for a man from whom so much was expected this year could still be redeemed with one big performance — even just one big play — on the frozen McMahon turf this afternoon.

“I can’t wait to play again,” Jeffers-Harris, 23, said Friday. “Completely. I play football. This is what I love to do.”

Jeffers-Harris will dress today in place of Greg Carr, the man who took his job back in mid-August and had managed to hang on to it until this week.

The circumstances are a bit unusual. Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said Friday that Carr suffered what he alternately described as a bruised “butt” or a bruised “lower back” in a loss to the Toronto Argonauts in Winnipeg last weekend.

What’s curious is the injury was not enough to keep Carr from practising all this week — or from taking most of the first-team reps. And so when Jeffers-Harris was informed Thursday after practice that he would dress today, he did what sounds like a bit of a double-take.

“It was still a surprise to me. Oh yeah, sure it was,” Jeffers-Harris said.

The difference is this time it was a pleasant surprise. Much was expected of Jeffers-Harris coming into this season after a rookie campaign in 2010 that saw him at one point making a legitimate bid for CFL rookie-of-the-year honours before an ankle injury sidelined him for seven games.

Jeffers-Harris still finished the season with 48 catches for 547 yards and four TDs and he put on some serious muscle — and a few extra pounds — in the off-season in a bid to attract some NFL interest this year.

The Americans never came calling, however, and Jeffers-Harris returned to Winnipeg, only to find a Bombers coaching staff that was a bit dismayed to find the extra weight he had added over the winter for an NFL bid was now unnecessarily slowing him down in the CFL.

But the low point of Jeffers-Harris’s season came at home in Week 3 against the Stampeders. With the Bombers leading Calgary late in the fourth quarter and apparently poised to improve to 3-0, Jeffers-Harris fumbled and set up what proved to be the game-winning touchdown in a 21-20 Calgary victory.

Even worse — and it’s tough to top that — Bombers backup QB Joey Elliott suffered a season-ending knee injury on the same play as he attempted to make a tackle following the fumble.

Jeffers-Harris remained in the Bombers lineup for four more games after that, but he never really did regain the form he showed in 2010 and was finally replaced by Carr, having mustered just 334 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

It was a humbling experience for a man with NFL aspirations, but to his credit Jeffers-Harris never complained and has consistently been an active and eager participant in Bombers practices.

“I guess it was frustrating because I do want to play, but it wasn’t hard to deal with,” he says now. “I wouldn’t say it was so tough. It was just really coming to terms with the role I was being put in.”

That role changes dramatically again today — and with it, a chance to turn from goat to hero in a single game.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca